Chapter Eighty-Six: Disaster! Both Siblings Lose Their Masks

Plop! Plop!

Wang Cheng and A Xiao, the first to leap into the ancient well, had already plunged into a river far broader than any in the waking world: the Nine-Dragon River.

Its torrents roared from west to east and rushed toward the sea, like a winding black dragon.

Looking up, one could clearly see a colossal black iron pagoda standing at the river’s source, mountain-high, hung with bells and strung with corpses, exactly as they had seen it in their dreams.

A thick, foul, and uncanny dragon aura struck them full in the face.

Wang Cheng also saw many strange, malformed dragon-blooded beings swimming to and fro beneath the water.

There was no heartbeat, no spark of life in them; they must have been born from the human will alone, part of the sediment left behind by history’s civilizational tides.

Not far from them, the shore was the Moon Harbor, bathed in a veil of golden light.

From the summit of Treasure Hill Beacon Tower, radiance shot up to the heavens, completely sealing Moon Harbor off from the black waters of the historical sediment and preventing it from being swallowed by the flood.

Knowing the truth, Wang Cheng could not help but show a trace of worry.

“This is the divine treasure of the God of Wealth’s Shen clan, the Treasure-Gathering Basin? If Master’s identity is exposed because of it, things will be bad.”

His devotion to both public duty and private interest had come only because the two happened to align. But when the two conflicted, his master had resolutely chosen the public good. It should have been his master who served as chairman!

A Xiao turned gracefully in midair, sleeves fluttering, and landed on the crest of a wave with the tip of her toe.

She stood poised and elegant, like a swaying lotus, and glanced back at Wang Cheng, who was also moving atop the waves. In some hesitation, she asked,

“Riches, Moon Harbor is safe now.

For the sake of saving Madam Feast, a person who has nothing to do with you, you might even lose your life. Are you still willing to keep going forward with me?”

Having long since been schooled by his mentor, Wang Cheng had already trained his face into something impervious to swords and spears. On reflex, polished words came readily to his lips.

“We of our generation prize our word above all; our hearts know no second promise. Where righteousness lies, there can be no retreat.

Sister A Xiao, are you not the same? I am merely learning from you.

Let us hurry on.”

Yun Xiao was deeply comforted.

“Riches, I thank you on Madam Feast’s behalf. You are truly a good person.”

She took his hand on her own initiative and was about to harness the waves by means of the Yin Transformation technique, riding upstream.

As they went, Wang Cheng looked up toward the distant Nine Dragon Pool and felt as if he had forgotten something terribly important. Yet no matter how he tried, he could not remember it at all.

At the same time, behind them came the sound of splashing, thump after thump, like dumplings dropped into boiling water.

It was Tang Miaofu and her group, who had chased after them and all fallen into the water as well.

These people had learned in advance what the historical sediment was, and came fully prepared. Each had stuck a Water-Repelling Talisman to his chest, and in the water they swam as swiftly as fish.

Only, they had scattered across a wide stretch of water several miles around, and could not regroup for the moment.

“Captain Tang, let me take them down!”

Master Chen, the Leather Artisan, eager for merit, pulled the rolled leather he and his personal guards had wrapped around their waists free, then wrapped it around his own body.

At once they transformed into a pack of sharks, sailfish, swordfish, and other ferocious creatures, carving white lines through the water as they rushed at the two at high speed.

This was precisely the Leather Artisan’s signature skill: turning beasts.

By using animal hides stripped from all manner of beasts and demons, he could transform a person into the corresponding animal and grant that being’s abilities.

Of course, he would also inherit part of its savage nature, and with enough time, one might truly become livestock.

This art came from the same lineage as the Skin-Robing Technique, which could peel away a human’s skin and take their place.

By the time they caught up behind Wang Cheng and A Xiao, they had already strayed far from the disordered main formation.

A Xiao and Wang Cheng cooperated with perfect understanding. She flicked her little hand and stirred up a skyful of white mist over the river.

Wang Cheng, facing the swarm of fish, formed the Subduing-Dragon seal with his hand, suppressing the dragon-blooded fate within him, and cried out:

“Roar—!”

When a dragon happens to fly low after rain, even a casual dragon’s cry can frighten cattle and horses to death; outwardly they seem unharmed, but within, they have already been struck dead by thunderous force and reduced to charcoal.

Wang Cheng did not yet possess such power, but to scare people, it was more than enough.

Instantly, the entire pack of turned beasts was gripped by the animal-hide instinctive fear they could not control, scattering in all directions like headless flies.

Clash of beast-skin and dragon-robe, and the outcome was immediately clear!

Only Master Chen, the Leather Artisan, transformed into a great shark, could still bear down and force his way forward.

At the same time, the various dragon-blooded fish species in the riverbed nearby rushed to the summons the instant they heard the dragon’s cry, gathering around Wang Cheng.

Clearly, this stretch of historical sediment was far more friendly to dragon-blooded beings than to humans; for the two of them, it was almost like half their own territory.

“North Dipper Seven True Ones, command all spirits. East and west, south and north, preserve life and move forward. Go!”

Wang Cheng thrust his right hand forward in a sword-finger point, and the fish swarm instantly became a torrent that struck back at the pack of turned beasts.

One by one they opened their mouths, each mouth lined with dagger-sharp teeth flashing cold light, and they surrounded the beast-transformed foes, biting wildly.

“Aaaah!”

“That’s the enlightenment art of the White-Water Drowned-Man!”

“He’s only a mere seventh rank; how can he summon so many helpers at once? What, are the disciples of the Hall of the Time Lord allowed to ignore all metaphysics?”

Most of the turned beasts were ordinary folk who had not yet lit the lamp of the heart. Once their beast-skins were broken, they reverted to human form, only to be dragged into the deep water by the fish swarm and torn to pieces.

Only Master Chen, the seventh-rank Leather Artisan with enough real skill to back it up, shook himself free of the encirclement, though by the time he broke out alone, he was already covered in wounds.

What met him were three black water thunderbolts in A Xiao’s hand, gathered from the waters of the heavenly rain.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

They surrounded the Leather Artisan in a triangular formation and exploded with a great burst of white spray.

The question is: why does an underwater explosion have far greater force than an explosion in air when the charge is the same?

Because water is roughly eight hundred thirty-five times denser than air and is almost incompressible, it can transmit explosive force perfectly.

Even a non-contact explosion can still produce immense destructive power; an ironclad warship struck by a heavy torpedo might even be cut clean in half.

This Leather Artisan was no exception.

In the water, besieged by two opponents both roughly at the peak of the seventh rank, he was brutally killed on the spot.

A cloud of filthy blood mist spread out, splashing across the whole river surface.

Only a thread of red light fell into the money-eye.

It was an occult art from the same secret manual, the Secret Key to Human Affairs in the Inner Garment Collection: the Shape-Change Maiden Art.

As the name suggests, it could turn a man into a beautiful woman, simply the supreme gospel of ocean-going sailors, making “brother, you smell so good” a reality.

“I’m a proper gentleman who studies the Spring and Autumn Annals, so why am I always tangled up with such evil arts? It’s sheer slander against my innocence.”

This time, however, Wang Cheng did not have the nerve to say he would never use it. He silently stored it in the treasure vault of his magical wealth.

Then he directed those river monsters to charge again toward Tang Miaofu’s larger force behind them.

The pursuers dared not advance further and all hurried frantically toward the shipwoman of West Lake, whose strength was the greatest.

Tang Miaofu immediately took two talismans from her pouch:

the Flying Swallow Tray, a golden platter upon which Zhao Feiyan had once danced, and within the tray lay the quince with which An Lushan had wounded Yang Guifei’s breast.

Their former owners had both been famed beauties who brought ruin to nations in their day. Though not high in rank and no more than treasures of a single prefecture, each possessed its own strange power.

The quince, which had remained uncorrupted for a thousand years in the world, released a faint, lingering fragrance. The low-intelligence strange fish in the water seemed unwilling to harm her and kept away from her.

“Stop standing there! Chase them! Kill that shameless pair!”

But by the time they broke through the white mist blocking their sight, there was no sign of the two on the river surface.

Wang Cheng and A Xiao had already slipped beneath the water, like two great fish needing no breath, shooting straight upstream along the Nine-Dragon River, faster than the beast-transformed turned beasts from before.

And the faster they swam, the more exhilarated they became.

“Sister A Xiao, I don’t know why, but this river feels especially easy to swim. We probably won’t even need a day to reach the source.”

Wang Cheng had fallen into the occupational habit of a boatmaster and fire-bearer, silently calculating the distance by the watch, when suddenly he heard A Xiao say in a complicated, faintly wistful tone beside him,

“Wang Cheng, your fox tail is showing.”

At that, he froze for a moment.

Fox tail? My natal star officer is Horn Wood Dragon, not Heart Moon Fox. Where would I get a fox tail from? Wait!

He suddenly realized something was wrong in her words and gave a violent start.

Forcing himself to suppress the urge to turn around at once, he tried to cling to a shred of luck.

“Sister A Xiao, who were you calling just now?”

A Xiao’s voice remained certain.

“Oh, I misspoke just now. It’s not a fox tail. It’s a Chilong tail.”

Wang Cheng turned his head, and sure enough, there really was a blazing red Chilong tail trailing behind him.

His heart lurched.

“Oh no. My disguise is blown.”

No wonder he had been swimming so fast just now.

By this point, he finally remembered what important thing he had forgotten earlier.

Once one entered the historical sediment, the dragon aura on one’s body would manifest in the tale of Stone Drum Dragon Fishing, and not even the All-Sea Communion Treasure could fully conceal it.

Wang Cheng looked at A Xiao’s peerlessly beautiful face beside him, a face now wearing a half-smile and a little gnashing resentment, and could not help being struck dumb.

Outwardly he had acted as if he would give everything for the cause, even at a loss, helping others with all his might, speaking again and again of rescuing Moon Harbor, saving Madam Feast, and protecting the boat people, never once failing to mention his noble public heart.

He had won so much goodwill in the middle of it, even received a good-person card from her. And then what?

She was the fish in the pond, while he, Young Master Wang, was the spark that had set the city gate alight!

The thief crying thief had been caught red-handed.

All the righteous declarations he had made under the name of Wang Riches, all the lofty vows he had sworn, now turned into cold, hard rain that slapped his face again and again.

Then, as if she had seen something, her expression froze, and she too let out a soft, resigned sigh.

“And your tail is showing too. Big Sister Feast!”

“Huh?”

Yun Xiao turned back and saw that behind her own hips there was also a long silver dragon tail, and the farther they swam, the more obvious her dragonification became.

Scales along her cheeks, sharp claws on her hands, and a pair of coral-like dragon horns on her brow, clear and lovely.

Though still somewhat different from the silver dragon from that night, it was more than enough to identify her.

At once, she too fell silent.

The image she had shown Wang Cheng was apparently much the same as Wang Riches’.

At first she had been the “Great Zhao’s Fine Temple Steward,” charging at the front lines with no fear of hardship or exhaustion, for the sake of devout faith and the temple stewards among the boat people who had been murdered.

During this period in Moon Harbor, where natural and man-made disasters had come one after another, she had almost become a living bodhisattva of deliverance, earning a huge wave of incense merit.

Before and after the pirate invasion, the two of them had been the most active. Among the Five Peaks Banner, the Mountain-and-Sea Society, and the Heavenly Consort line, who among the temple stewards and temple guards ignorant of the truth did not lavish praise on them?

On the strength of that devotion to both public duty and private interest, Wang Cheng had almost taken her into the One-Heart Society.

In truth, whether for Wang Cheng or for Yun Xiao, the reason they were willing to serve as the vanguard and shield everyone behind them

had never had the slightest relation to public duty and private interest. It was all nothing but a heart full of private motives, truer than true gold!

Before their identities were exposed, they had both been using each other as pawns.

The two met eyes and, as if by shared instinct, silently cursed the other in their hearts:

“This old rogue!”

“This black-hearted maggot!”

In the end, it was Yun Xiao who prevailed. Her brow furrowed, and she reached out to grab Wang Cheng’s ear.

“You have no manners, little Cheng. Call me Aunt Feast!”